Translated material
Uncontrolled shot
The death of a fan at the hands of a police officer sparked a riot
Italy has again been hit by a wave of riots caused by football fans. Fans of almost all Italian clubs, who would normally be at odds with each other, learned of the death of one of the fans from a bullet fired by a policeman and united in protest against the authorities.The name of the deceased is Gabriele Sandri. The Roman DJ, an active Lazio fan, was accidentally shot dead at a petrol station in his car on Sunday in the town of Arezzo, halfway from Rome to Milan, where his team were due to meet Inter. According to police, there was a danger of a large-scale clash in Arezzo between fans of Lazio and Juventus, who, in turn, were traveling from Turin to their match in Parma. To prevent an ensuing fight, police fired what officials say were several warning shots. One of them turned out to be fatal - a bullet hit Gabriele Sandri in the neck, leaving him no chance of salvation. “I didn’t aim at anyone, I didn’t want to hit anyone. I was a hundred meters away from him, how could I hit him?.. I fired the first shot in the air, and the second while I was running to separate them,” Reuters quotes a police officer who unwittingly became the culprit of the tragedy.
Perhaps the accident would not have caused such a resonance among football fans. But Gabriele Sandri was quite famous in certain circles. He was friends with some Lazio players and was a fairly popular DJ. For the leaders of other clubs, it was enough to learn that the cause of the fan’s death was a bullet fired by a policeman. The news of this excited fans at the Atalanta - Milan match. At the 12th minute. meeting, a wave of excited tifosi poured onto the field fence and police redoubts. The game was interrupted and never resumed. Soon it was decided to cancel two more matches of the national championship: Inter - Lazio in Milan and Roma - Cagliari in Rome.
But the wave of unrest could no longer be stopped. Almost all night, fans in Rome stormed the police barracks, and the building of the Italian Olympic Committee was thrown with stones and iron bolts. It is reported that 40 law enforcement officers received various injuries during the fan riot. One policeman was seriously injured - he was hit with a metal rod, the most common weapon of the Italian tiffosi. In addition, fans burned several cars and smashed windows. Fans also rioted in other cities of the country.
Yesterday, Italian law enforcement agencies began to respond. The first arrests of the instigators were made, and four of them were charged with terrorism by the Rome prosecutor's office. It is possible that other tough measures will be taken, as was the case in February this year after the death of a policeman in Sicily, who was killed by fans. Then the national championship was interrupted, and then some matches were later held in empty stands. In addition, the clubs of series “A” and “B” were obliged to separate football fields from the stands with special fences, and install video surveillance systems at stadiums, thanks to which it is possible to identify the most aggressive tifozi and instigators of riots. The measures taken made it possible, according to official statistics, to reduce the level of violence in the stands by 80%. But at the first opportunity, the fans decided to take revenge on the police.
Italian Championship. 12th round. “Sampdoria” – “Empoli” – 3:0, “Palermo” – “Napoli” – 2:1, “Fiorentina” – “Udinese” – 1:2, “Parma” – “Juventus” -- 2:2, "Regina" -- "Genoa" -- 2:0, "Siena" -- "Livorno" -- 2:3, "Torino" -- "Catania" -- 1:1. The leaders are: Inter - 25 points (11 games), Fiorentina - 23 (12).